The gods offer no rewards for intellect. There was never one yet that showed any interest in it. --Mark Twain

September 28, 2004

A Guest Blogger: My Hot, Brilliant, Gregarious Hairdresser Wife

Maybe I was just spoiling for a fight today. Usually I let comments like "I hope you're voting for W" go, but today I just couldn't do it. I am sick unto death of people who call themselves Christians trying to tell me, in so many words, that the Republian party is the embodiment of God's will on earth. Now don't get me wrong, it's not that I hate Dems or Repubs, it's just that I hate this two-party system. (That's a whole other blog entry.)

In the past couple weeks I've had several conversations with Christians who consider themselves members of both parties. It seems that both parties think of themselves as doing the right thing and the other party as wrong. I think that as a Christian subscribing to either one of these views uncritically makes you inconsistent in your faith. You can see Greg's post below for the conversation about abortion and war I had with a fundy today. For me personally, supporting killing of any kind is unchristian. That's why I'm having such a hard time figuring out how to be a good American and a good Christian. Where do my responsibilities to each begin and end?

Each party believes they have the moral high ground. Democrats support social justice issues: opposition to the death penalty, support for education, racial and economic issues, etc. However, part of the party platform is support for abortion. Republicans support issues of personal morality, at least that's what they say. However, they support the death penalty, this unjust war, and big corporations. Why can't we take the good out of both of these and pitch the bad? I know that's naive. I'm just really frustrated with the state of affairs in this country and with the way evangelical and fundamentalist Christians tend to blindly support this corrupt system.

Greg won't let me go on forever, so I will guest blog again another time. Greg is also my amanuensis. I've always wanted one of those.

Yeah, I am growing a bit election weary and am a little worried as this election draws near that i will start to care, say something to someone that I didn't mean to say (only because it isn;t going to change most people's minds) and then regret it, wondering if they think I'm a pinko bleeding heart and totally write me off. It's bound to happen anyway.

Yes. the church as a whole has been more reserved in regard to human behavior. I can't disagree with that. The killing thing is problematic, though. Many expected Jesus to use violence to overthrow the Roman oppressors. One could say thatthe reason he didn'tdo that was because he came for another purpose (to die on the cross and redeem humanity) and that he will return to bring the other kind of violent justice that you speak of (David and Goliath)at judgment. So I grant that using Jesus peaceful example could be understood in light of the larger Biblical witness. But therein is the rub for me.

The Bible is problematic for me, for many. And so we bring a host of interpretations to it, anthropolgy, science, sociology, personal experience. I know people say we should "just read the Bible" but no one does that, not really, its just that some give more weight to outside voices than others. This is where you and I would obviously part ways. Thge Bible has aithority in my life (though I would probably use other language), but in avery different way than for you, I am am guessing.

I am a Democrat because I believe that my government ought to do everything it can to care for those in our society who have less capability or who have been so wounded by their context that they are handicapped in some fashion. I am glad to pay taxes knowing this is a big part of what it goes to support. I believe that using violence to fight opression should be our very last resort. DNC policies on abortion are troubling to me, I confess, but no more troubling than a Republican giving allowances to large corporations who would at first opportunity abuse workers to increase their profits.

Truth be told, neither party has a corner on religious values. Both are guilty of missing the point of Jesus and his teaching.